Deepest Darkness

Read Session 13

The heroes defeated the watch post of duergar and mind flayers and were left slightly injured and no cleric to heal their wounds. They chose to move on and followed a pathway not included on the map given to them by the deep gnomes. As they did the Paladin Zov began to feel ill and the party noticed an unnatural cold about him. He confided that he had been feeling slight changes over the course of the last few weeks and thought most of the changes were for the good, his muscles had tightened and his ability not sleep less and eat less but still feel rested had increased. His skin, though, had drawn tighter and he had a gaunt sickly look to him.

They tried to decipher what might be ailing him, but chose to move on and investigate the tunnel. They moved to its depths and found that the duergar patrols tracks stopped and at that same point Derro tracks began as if the two did not mix. They turned around and move back towards the watch post and indeed found a patrol of duergar returning and engaged in battle with the gray dwarves. The battle was short lived and the heroes dispatched the dwarves quickly.

They chose to journey toward the City of the Glasspool next and found the Grand Cavern that held the village. The cavern itself was lit by luminesant lichen and the party could grasp the size of the cavern in its some 800 feet long and 500 feet wide. It held a small village ‘city’ inside a 22foot high glassrock wall.

The small gold dragon Shimmron took to flight and surveyed the entire area drawing a small but detailed map of the city from above. From there they chose to investigate a small tunnel that led away from the city and its possible exiting point, in case of emergency. There they confronted a small watch guard group of 4 duergar and a single mind flayer. The mind flayer held a curious glass globe filled with yellow smoke.

When the group of adventures jumped around the corner and attacked the unsuspecting guards, the mind flayer dropped the globe, which shattered and released the gas. The smoke was glowing fumes that trailed up to the ceiling of the cavern, a signal to the city watch that the guard post has been attacked.

This is where the group made a fatal error, after dispatching the guards they ran down the side of the city wall towards the rear of the cavern instead of the exit tunnel. Here they came to an obvious dead-end that was drawn by the dragon clearly shown. So they had to turn around or be cornered in by the patrol guards dispatched at the signal smoke. By the time they returned to the side tunnel a guard was on the wall looking at the dead bodies on the floor level. Before he could raise another alarm, Zov shot him full of arrows, but it too raised the alarm inside the city.

A platoon of duergar with 2 mind flayers quickly rounded the corner of the city wall and attacked the small party of adventures. The party’s quick demise looked imminent, but Koal pulled forth a wand of fireballs and let loose. This dispatched many enemies, but still they would be quickly overwhelmed. He then ran into the midst of the enemies and broke the wand in half, releasing its magic energies in one single explosion.

He was gravely injured, but had slain many duergar warriors. This though alerted the entire city to the battle and Drow wizards and clerics began to organize into a fighting force equipped with the spell of flight for quick movement.

The adventures soon made a break for their lives, but not before the poor goblin Urk fell to too many grievous injuries from the long and arduous battle. His sacrific will not be forgotten, but he was unable to be saved. Sanyuri too fell to the mind flayers mental blasts of stunning. Zov retrieved her stunned form and they party ran for their very lives. As they moved into the tunnel, something very strange then happened. Zov began to have a fit of sickness. He doubled over in pain and began to vomit up his insides. As they spilled on the ground, the party could see that they were rotten and dead. When at last Zov recovered his gaze lifted from his spilled innards to look the party over with the eyes of red pin points of light. The eyes of an undead ghoul. Somehow Zov had been cursed to slowly change into an undead creature of evil.